or Hallow e'en as its more widely known.

The next week or so has always been an intense time in my family, Mum's birthday on Oct 31st, Dad's on Nov 9th plus Bonfire night on the 5th and rememberance day on the 11th. TBH, growing up in the UK in the 70's, 'Halloween' wasn't a thing, the more religous might do All Hallows on the 1st but all the dressing up, trick or treat etc, that was just something those weirdos across the pond did, like cheerleading, prom and homecoming, none of which were a thing here (and still aren't really).

This year there aren't any parental birthdays to celebrate, no cards, cake or presents, Bonfire night is almost absorbed into the spend fest of Halloween 'celebrations' (i doubt if 99% of those taking part have a clue to what they are 'celebrating') which leaves Rememberance day, not exactly a fun day, this year we'll be scattering Dad's ashes as well. Not a great couple of weeks for my family.

So what have i been up to this week? Monday, after the domestic chores, i set too on the veg beds, clearing the weeds, harvesting a few late veggies and getting things a bit more sorted ahead of the winter. Then it was off for a walk, essentially just a trip around the block but 3km ranks as exercise even if i did get a bit damp.

Tuesday then, Aunty Bev and myself loaded the bikes up and headed south to Bridgwater for a days riding. The weather was a bit grey but no rain was forecast, Bev was to do an 'easy' ride along the canal whilst i took a longer loop with the intension of meeting mid afternoon for coffee before heading back to the car. It didn't go exactly to plan!

My route was to go west over the Quantock ridge then turn north to Watchet on the coast for lunch, which i did, however, a late departure from the car, a lack of signage on the first bit of trail and a steeper (20%+) and longer than expected climb to the top of the ridge meant i was best part of an hour behind my plan when i reached my lunch spot. Watchet is a nice little port but i hadn't got time to explore, so it was a box of chips overlooking the harbour then back on the bike for the hopefully easier ride back via Taunton and the canal.

Navigation errors, well you try map reading off an iphone, added a few kilometres and ate more time but i got onto my planned route south which it turns out had almost as much climbing although it was at least less steep. Meanwhile Bev had abandoned the canal path due to excessive mud and returned to the car and an afternoon in Bridgwater, looks like i need a different route from Taunton then. The good news was that after the up i had a down, @ 10 miles of quite fast flowing B road with little traffic for the most part, i was still behind my planned time but i had picked up almost fifteen minutes.

I'm sure Taunton is a nice little town but navigating the place is a nightmare, each time i visit i end up using a different route, none of which seem particularly straight forward. I thought i would use the canal path to get at least out of the town but despite following the signs, after several false starts and closures i gave up. Nothing for it but to use the A38 then, well i couldn't even find that, it wasn't signed in the centre so again i ended up adding miles and time, losing all that i'd regained in the process. By now it was turned 3pm, the light was starting to fade and i still had a dozen miles to go.

This bike isn't exactly designed nor set up for speed but i cranked up my effort on the rolling route north east, i'd guestimated 3.30 at the car, it was 3.35 when i got there having ridden 88km with just shy of 1000m of up since departure. All the navigational stops had cost me over 30 mins, the climbing and lunch a further 30 on top of the delayed start, i was, to say the least, quite tired!

Today, once the chores were done i set off for a longer walk, it was another grey day but hovering around 10c, not bad for walking., with a stop for a cuppa and a visit to Lidl, i was out for 3 hours and covered a little under 8km. All this exercise is making me tired!

Rest of the week? Well a ride tomorrow looks good, Friday i'll likely do the next batch of chutney, i got the ingredients today, just need some jars which i'll fetch on Friday. Saturday looks good for another ride but who knows this far away?
Well thats it for today, next post with more Gaby on Sunday, but for now,
Tschussie,
Madeline Anafrid

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